Partisan Gerrymandering Case before the Supreme Court

With the court apparently split 4-4 along liberal-conservative lines, the man in the middle is Justice Anthony Kennedy, who in a 2004 court opinion left the door open to declaring extreme partisan gerrymandering unconstitutional if “manageable standards” could be developed for identifying which ones are extreme.

Justice Stephen Breyer had a series of suggested steps: Limit judicial oversight to cases where one political party has complete control of the redistricting process and uses that advantage to draws district lines that, as in this case, give the incumbent party a state-wide victory with a minority of votes, or otherwise deeply entrench itself for years to come.